Scranton to New York City (NYC) Service<\/a>. The Pennsylvania Northeast Regional Railroad Authority\u00a0(PNRRA), the rail authority for this region of the Commonwealth,\u00a0has\u00a0long\u00a0been a strong proponent of\u00a0passenger rail\u00a0service restoration and is a key partner in the project, along with New\u00a0Jersey\u00a0(NJ)\u00a0TRANSIT\u00a0and Amtrak.\u00a0Restoration\u00a0of this service has been a\u00a0multi-decade endeavor.\u00a0<\/p>\nThe Scranton to NYC\u00a0Corridor ID\u00a0is in\u00a0Phase\u00a02\u00a0of the\u00a0three-phased process\u00a0from\u00a0the\u00a0FRA\u00a0and\u00a0includes service development planning.\u00a0It is one of the first\u00a0Corridor ID\u00a0projects in the country to\u00a0progress through this milestone.\u00a0Phase\u00a02\u00a0will focus on\u00a0the\u00a0creation\u00a0of a\u00a0Service Development Plan to\u00a0identify\u00a0investment needs and associated costs to\u00a0initiate\u00a0passenger rail service.\u00a0This\u00a0rail\u00a0corridor\u00a0previously was served by\u00a0Conrail,\u00a0the Erie Lackawanna\u00a0Railroad,\u00a0and\u00a0its predecessors. Part of the route includes the\u00a0renowned\u00a0Lackawanna\u00a0Cut-Off \u2013\u00a0an\u00a0engineering marvel\u00a0of its time\u00a0\u2013\u00a0built with\u00a0large fills, cuts, and notable viaducts\u00a0to\u00a0provide low grades and gentle curves, allowing for trains to quickly cover the territory.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n
With the\u00a0entirety\u00a0of the proposed route\u00a0under public ownership, restoring rail connectivity to communities along this route has the potential to once again reliably link\u00a0and\u00a0economically\u00a0invigorate\u00a0northeast Pennsylvania.\u00a0This project would\u00a0utilize\u00a0current and former\u00a0active railroad right-of-way, creatively using and improving existing infrastructure to mitigate cost and\u00a0restore vital economic links.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cI commend the experience, financial support, and leadership of PennDOT in advancing this vital Amtrak Corridor after many years of acquiring and developing this crucial Transportation and Economic Development Corridor,\u201d PNRRA President Larry\u00a0Malski\u00a0said.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
The proposed service would directly connect\u00a0northeast Pennsylvania\u00a0with the New York\u00a0(NY)\u00a0metropolitan\u00a0area\u00a0and allow riders to connect to the rest of the Amtrak national network, in addition to\u00a0NJ\u00a0TRANSIT, Long Island Railroad, and Metro North. In addition, this service will\u00a0afford riders the opportunity to\u00a0transfer to airport services\u00a0at\u00a0Newark (EWR),\u00a0LaGuardia\u00a0(LGA),\u00a0and\u00a0Kennedy (JFK)\u00a0airports, truly offering the world to\u00a0northeastern\u00a0Pennsylvania\u00a0residents.\u00a0Equally, riders from N.Y.\u00a0and\u00a0N.J.\u00a0will gain rail access to the Poconos\u00a0as well as the\u00a0Scranton\u00a0metropolitan\u00a0area, further enabling tourism opportunities and\u00a0alternative\u00a0cross-border commutes.\u00a0 \u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cWe at NJ TRANSIT look forward to continuing our participation with project partners PennDOT, NJDOT and Amtrak on this endeavor,\u201d said NJ TRANSIT Chief Planner Jeremy Colangelo-Bryan.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The\u00a0Federal\u00a0Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act, also known as the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law (BIL),\u00a0contained\u00a0historic levels of funding for the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":167173,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[15],"tags":[178,180,179],"class_list":["post-167172","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-scranton","tag-scranton","tag-scranton-headlines","tag-scranton-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/167172","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=167172"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/167172\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/167173"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=167172"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=167172"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=167172"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}